Schools

All State Choir: Morgan County sings

FM senior and Brush junior perform at All State Choir

By Kara Morgan

The Fort Morgan Times

Posted:
02/26/2019 07:59:32 PM MST

The Colorado All State Choir brings together talented junior and senior students from every corner of the state. This year, Brush junior Michael Crandall and Fort Morgan senior Simon Graff represented Morgan County in the Tenor-Bass Choir (formerly the Men's Choir) and Mixed Choir, respectively. (Courtesy Letty Graff / The Fort Morgan Times)

Fort Morgan senior Simon Graff, center, stands with his parents, James and Letty Graff, at his second Colorado All State Choir, which was held from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2. (Courtesy Letty Graff / The Fort Morgan Times)

Some Morgan County high school students can really sing.

Fort Morgan High School senior Simon Graff and Brush High School junior Michael Crandall sang all the way to Colorado All State Choir in early February.

According to Fort Morgan Choir Director Mark Ossip and Brush Choir Director Darline Miner, this is Graff's second year and Crandall's first time.

A competitive three-day choir festival, All State Choir brings together junior and senior high school students from across Colorado. After an audition process, students are assigned to a Tenor-Bass Choir (formerly the Men's Choir), Mixed Choir or Treble Choir (formerly the Women's Choir).

Graff was in the Mixed Choir this year and Crandall was in the Tenor-Bass Choir. Participants spend several days rehearsing with their choir and perform on the final day.

Ossip and Miner both expressed their pride for their students for getting into the choir this year.

"It's a great honor, it's very difficult to get into these choirs, but we're just always pleased to have anybody selected," Miner said.

"It's a very prestigious thing," Ossip explained. "It's a high honor to be there, and once you're there, you're with a lot of other students who are as good as you."

Choir challenges

Graff explains what the process was like for him as a student.

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"It's a three-day thing. You'll audition for it about a month before. If you get in, then you go up on a Thursday and you kind of have to re-audition to make sure you learned your music."

"They give you the music beforehand; you have to memorize your six songs. Then they'll test your memorization there," he explained. "Once you pass that step, you'll rehearse to the end of Thursday, like up until 10 o'clock."

"Then you'll rehearse all day Friday, and on Saturday you'll have the performance."

In his first year, Graff said it was a bit overwhelming, but this year he had a better idea of what to expect.

"We got a solo ready, and then my mom searched up, and said ... 'You have to do sight-reading, gotta do scales, all kinds of stuff like that.'"

"We got ready on that portion, and I thought 'Wow, this a lot of stuff,'" Graff recalled.

"Once I passed the audition and gave me music, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, that's a lot of music to memorize, six songs in a month.'"

"This year wasn't as overwhelming because I knew what to expect," he added.

Ossip said the All State Choir is a great chance for talented students across the state to come together.

"The level of music is just extremely high in general," Ossip explained. "It does more than that; it allows them to kind of network with each other, some of the better singers in the state."

Ossip said he enjoyed coming to the All State Choir as a teacher, after going himself as a high school student. Part of the process is talking with students about what they want to do next.

"We talk a little bit about college music. While we have all of the talent in the same room, try to get them thinking about why music is important to them, why they're good at it, and if they want it to be a part of their future or not," Ossip said.

"It was something I did my senior year of high school. It was one of the reasons I think I'm probably here now, because I got to see that experience. It meant a lot to me, back then," Ossip added.

In his second year with Fort Morgan High School, Ossip said the choir program has already started to grow.

"My program is growing, and it's growing quickly since I've been here," he said.

From six students to now about 32 total, Ossip said he's glad the program has expanded since he joined FMHS last school year.

"It's been really great to see this kind of growth. To hear the growth in the music has been really rewarding, as well," he said.

"As the students know they get better, they're encouraged to do more. It's fun."

Ossip said he hopes to keep it growing, especially as he learned more about some of the choral history at FMHS.

"The choir program at this school used to be huge," Ossip said. "I have a plaque that says 'Most Students in All State Choir 1988.'"

"A good 30 years ago, we were the best of the best in the whole state for choral music," he added.

Ossip said he was proud of Graff for making it to All State these past two years, both of their first two years with the FMHS choir.

Ossip described Graff as a "brilliant musician."

"He's a very hard-working kid, and that is paying off for him this year," Ossip said. "Two years in a row is quite a feat."

Graff, himself, said this was only his second year with the choir at the high school, though he comes from a musical family and has been playing instruments, singing and learning from his aunt, vocal coach Tertia Cain, and his own musical parents, Letty and James Graff. Along with singing, Simon said he plays piano, trombone, bass guitar and guitar, among other instruments. He also plays on the basketball team.

Coming from Fort Morgan to the All State Choir is quite an experience, Simon said.

"You go from a choir of 20 kids to like 200, 300 kids," he said. "Our director was from the University of Arkansas. Last year our director was from Florida State."

"They try and get [directors] from top music programs out there to try and help us out," Simon explained.

He said he enjoyed the challenging music they had the chance to work on and hearing it all come together after three days of hard work.

"It's mostly classical. We did 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' but they just try to pick some of the harder music since they've got some more talented kids trying to up their repertoire a little bit," he explained.

"We did some classical a capella stuff, and especially this German piece, when we finally did it in the concert and all together, it was difficult but it was super awesome once we got it done and all performed," Simon said.

Coming together

Miner expressed her pride for Crandall and said they hope he is able to make it again next year.

"It's really a challenge, so we were proud to have someone make it this year," she said.

"He's only a junior, so we have another year, and hopefully we get some more in there next year," Miner added.

Ossip congratulated Simon on making it back to All State this year.

"It's cool for the program for this to happen again. It had been a few years before Simon did, that Fort Morgan High School got to send anybody at all," he explained, adding, "I'm glad I got to go, it was fun for me."

Beyond the prestige and hard work, Simon highlighted the chance to come together as a group of talented students, from all corners of the state.

"Just in the tenor section, we probably had kids from all around the state. I know guys from Boulder, Grand Junction, some from Fort Collins, some from Pueblo," he said.

"It's great to be around that much talent. That's just not an everyday experience. Especially in a small town, you don't get that kind of sound," he explained. "Two hundred kids who are all high-performing seniors, it's something that's fun to be a part of."

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